Rhymes and phonemes in the common unit task: replications and implications for beginning reading

Theorists and practitioners in the field of reading development are currently debating the importance of rhymes and phonemes in beginning reading. In a recent study, Duncan, Seymour and Hill (1997) provided evidence that explicit or meta- awareness of sound is closely linked to reading strategy. Meta-awareness was measured by asking beginning readers to identify the ‘common unit’ shared by two spoken words. Results showed that meta-awareness of phonemes emerged prior to meta-awareness of rhyme, and that reading strategy followed a similar small-to-large progression. This study reports on a replication of the ‘common unit’ task which includes modifications to the original procedure (randomisation of conditions, increased practice, removal of positional references from instructions). The results confirm the pattern observed in the original study. Beginning readers learning by a mixed method can identify shared phonemes but not shared rimes in the common unit task. The implications of this and similar replications are discussed.     

Score Gains, Attitudes, and Behavior Changes Due to Answer-Changing Instruction

Six undergraduate and three graduate classes were given multiple-choice tests with subsequent evaluation of answer changes. The 300 students were tested twice, once before and once after instruction on answer changing. After each test, students were asked to complete two forms. The forms evaluated attitude toward answer changing, reasons for changing, and confidence in final answers. Students showed a significant increase in favorability toward answer changing after instruction. No significant change was found in number of answers changed. Psychology students were found to change significantly more items than were business students. Mean gain score did not change significantly after instruction. It was concluded that although instruction does lead to a change in attitude in answer changing, the number of changes and overall gain due to answer changing do not change. It was also determined that students continue to make significant gains even when their confidence in the final answer is less than 50 on a 100-point scale.     

Academic freedom: International realities and challenges

Academic freedom is a central value of higher education. It affects the academic profession in all aspects of academic work. Yet, academic freedom is rarely discussed in the context of the changes taking place in higher education in the current period. The concept is defined in a historical and comparative framework, and the challenges facing academic freedom around the world are discussed.     

Children with reported histories of sexual abuse: utilizing multiple perspectives to understand clinical and psychosocial profiles

OBJECTIVE: The current study examines multiple empirically based perspectives (i.e., child, caregiver, and clinician) of behavior and functioning as they contribute to the clinical and psychosocial profile of children (aged 5 to 17.5 years) with reported histories of sexual abuse.METHOD: A large, multi-site data set of children referred into Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services both with and without reported histories of sexual abuse, was examined. Seven hundred and fifty-nine children with a reported history of sexual abuse were compared to 2722 without such a history on caregiver and child reported behavior, clinician rated functioning, diagnosis, demographic variables, and life challenges.RESULTS: The multiple perspectives contributed unique and specific information to regression models: caregiver-reported behavior contributed information about externalizing behavior while child-reported behavior added information about internalizing behavior and clinician ratings about self-harmful behavior. Children with reported histories of sexual abuse were also more likely to be female, Caucasian, and have reported histories of life challenges (e.g., physical abuse, substance use, running away). Child sexual abuse was associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses, and lower rates of substance abuse, conduct, and attention deficit disorder diagnoses.CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the profile of children entering into Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services with reported histories of sexual abuse, as compared to those without such histories, is complex and best understood via multiple perspectives. Caregiver, child and clinician rated information, when taken together, provide a comprehensive clinical and psychosocial profile around which to plan and implement individualized service plans.     

作为国际商品的知识与教育:公共产品的消解

全球化是 2 1世纪高等教育的核心部分之一。它带来了许多机会 ,同时又是一项挑战 ,对发展中国家来说尤其这样。全球化有许多不平等的因素 ,包括 :英语的广泛使用 ,这对那些不以英语作为教学语言的国家不利 ;知识产品如数据库等的所有权 ;发达国家大学在学术交流和其他联系方面处于主导地位。WTO和目前关于服务贸易协定的争论体现了全球化的复杂性。服务贸易协定寻求开放全球的高等教育市场 ,但与此同时 ,这也会影响到许多国家对高等教育决策的控制权     

Twisted roots: The Western impact on Asian higher education

The long historical and contemporary impact of Western academic models, practices and orientations on Asian universities in such countries as India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore shaped the nature of higher education systems in these countries. The Japanese colonial impact in Korea and Taiwan is also significant and an interesting variation on the colonial theme. Several Asian countries, including Thailand, Japan and China were not formally colonized, but the mixture of influence on the academic institutions that has developed in these countries reflects considerable Western influence. Contemporary factors such as the international knowledge system, the numbers of students studying in Western nations and patterns of scientific interaction also have a major impact on the growth of universities in Asia.     

Progress report on the development of child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe

PROBLEM: After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems. METHOD: Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute began conducting trainings in Eastern Europe [Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 39 (2000) 660]. Originally 18 countries from the Baltics to the Balkans participated. A program was elaborated which would proceed in several stages: (1) training mental health professionals to deal with child abuse and neglect (CAN); (2) teaching multidisciplinary team work and fostering the development of multidisciplinary NGOs focused on CAN; (3) promoting the self-sufficiency of these NGO's which would then facilitate social and legal reform and increase public awareness of the problem. Specific methods included multi-national trainings, assignment of mentors to the developing teams who maintained weekly contact with the teams and made yearly site visits to their countries, and overseeing project grants from OSI. RESULTS: NGO's had been established and registered in 11 countries, many establishing a network of programs within their countries. By 2000, over 3800 mental health professional had been trained, either directly by the program or by the trainees of the program. By the end of 2000, over 17,000 other professionals (lawyers, police, judges, educators, other physicians, etc.) had been trained by the network. CONCLUSION: While more work needs to be in this region, the teams in 11 countries have made solid starts.     

The effects of age of viewer and gender of the narrator on children's visual attention and recall of story ideas

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the age of viewers and the gender of the narrator in a film, and to examine the interaction between these two variables. Subjects in second and fifth grades were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. One group watched a film narrated by a female and the other watched the same film narrated by a male. As subjects watched the film, the experimenters measured their visual attention to the program. Recall of story ideas was also measured, using a multiple-choice test. The results indicated that the gender of the narrator influenced the recall of second-graders, but did not influence the recall of fifth-graders. Results suggest that older children pay greater visual attention to a program than younger children. Implications for developing audio-visual materials for children are discussed.